Nana Falemi

Ngassam Nana Falemi (born 5 May 1974) is a Romanian-born Cameroonian former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder.

Club career Falemi began playing junior-level football in 1981, aged 7 at local club Steaua, being coached by Lajos Sătmăreanu. He played regularly for The Yellow Wolves, most notably under the guidance of coach Marin Ion, attracting the interest of Steaua who decided to transfer him in the middle of the 1999–2000 season.

Falemi helped Steaua win the 2000–01 title, playing 25 games and scoring three goals, being coached by one of his childhood idols, Victor Pițurcă. Afterwards, Falemi made four appearances in the 2001–02 Champions League qualifying rounds, helping them get past Sloga Jugomagnat against whom he scored a goal, but got eliminated in the following round by Dynamo Kyiv. In the following season, he played in the 2003–04 UEFA Cup, as Steaua eliminated Neman Grodno and Southampton in the first two rounds, then after a 1–1 draw in the first leg against Liverpool, they lost the away leg with 1–0, thus the campaign ended. In his last season with The Military Men he played four matches in the 2004–05 UEFA Cup, including a 2–0 victory in the group stage against Standard Liège. He also made five league appearances, leaving in the middle of the season to Ergotelis, Steaua managing to win the title without him. He stayed until the end of the season with The Yellow-Blacks, returning afterwards in Romania at Vaslui.

Falemi left Volyn at the end of the season, moving to China League One side Jiangsu Shuntian for a short while, before returning to Romania to second league team, Dunărea Giurgiu. He made his last appearance in the Romanian first league on 23 November 2008 in Gaz Metan's 1–0 away loss to Farul Constanța, totaling 168 matches with eight goals in the competition. His following two appearances were a 0–0 draw against United States in the group stage and a 1–0 win over Colombia in the semi-finals of the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup. His last two games for the national team were friendlies, a 0–0 draw against Japan and a 3–0 loss to Bulgaria.

Personal life Falemi was born in Bucharest, Romania to a Cameroonian father and a Romanian mother. He has a twin brother, Nomi, and a younger brother, Cody. In 1981, his parents moved to West Berlin for work, and he was raised by his maternal grandmother.

In 2018, he opened his own football school, "FC Nana Juniors".

Honours Steaua București Divizia A: 2000–01, 2004–05 Supercupa României: 2001 Cameroon FIFA Confederations Cup runner-up: 2003